Response to Essentia's Aug. 10 Message to Red Book Members

Essentia sent you a letter. Here's the rest of the story.

You received a message from Essentia today, one day before mediation. We're glad they're talking about these proposals — because now everyone can see them. But their letter leaves out the one thing that determines whether any of it protects you.

In the contract, or it isn't real.

That's the whole disagreement, and it runs through nearly every item they described.

Bereavement leave and life insurance. Essentia says their policy versions are better benefits. On the terms themselves, they may well be right — more flexible bereavement use, a higher life insurance maximum. So put them in the contract. What Essentia is actually proposing is to move these benefits out of your contract and into company policy, "as may be amended from time to time" at the Employer's discretion. A benefit in policy can be improved this year and reduced next year without bargaining with anyone. A benefit in the contract cannot.

We have told Essentia we will take the improved terms — in writing, in the agreement, where they can't be changed without us. If these benefits are as good as they say, guaranteeing them costs Essentia nothing.

The PTO cap. Essentia calls this correcting an administrative error. Here's what it means for you: for years, Essentia administered a 1.5x cap. Members planned around it. Now they want to reduce it — and about 55 of your coworkers currently hold balances above the new cap. Members didn't make that error, and members shouldn't pay for it. Being given until the end of the year to spend down time you already earned is not a concession; it's a deadline.

"This only affects two employees." Essentia says the reserve bank change affects two people and the vacation cap affects no one currently. Then here is a fair question: if these cuts affect almost no one, why are they still on the table one day before mediation? You don't hold up a contract over provisions that don't matter. They matter because they set the ceiling for everyone hired after us — and for every one of us whose balance grows over the next three years. We're not going to trade away the people who come next.

Critical shift incentives. We support paying incentives to fill hard shifts, and we've said so at the table. What Essentia's letter doesn't mention is the part we object to: their proposal keeps a unilateral right to eliminate or reduce incentives at any time. An incentive you can lose without notice isn't compensation you can count on.

Appendix F — "housekeeping." Moving language from a 2003 letter into the contract sounds like filing. Read what's being moved: the restriction that keeps the unscheduled shift bonus out of the clinic setting. We're not opposed to organizing the contract. We're opposed to permanently embedding a restriction that excludes clinic members from a bonus their hospital coworkers receive.

Cross-facility floating. Essentia says this has been voluntary from the start, in more than 30 of their contracts. Then let's write it down. We agree it should be voluntary — that's exactly why we asked for the protections that make "voluntary" mean something: bargaining unit members offered available hours first, no member displaced or sent home early while an outside worker stays, a guaranteed full shift, and a joint review after one year. If the program is voluntary and limited as they describe, putting that in the agreement costs them nothing and protects both sides from misunderstanding later.

Wages — read the number carefully. Essentia's across-the-board offer is 2%. Their letter presents it as 3.21% / 3.19% / 3.17% by adding in the cost of grid steps. Steps are raises you earn by working 2,080 hours. They are already yours — and they're in our proposal too. Adding them to the total doesn't lift anyone's base pay any higher.

Compare the same thing on both sides — the across-the-board increase, the part that raises everyone's grid: ours is 4.5% a year, retroactive to July 1. Theirs is 2%. That is the real gap, and we came down from 7% to get there.

The "optional wage framework." Essentia describes this as an idea for discussion. Here's what it would do: replace the grid and steps with wage ranges and a single annual percentage. Members at the top of the scale would receive increases as one-time payments rather than permanent base pay, and step increases would end for roughly three-quarters of our unit still moving through the grid. We declined it, and we'll explain why to the mediator.

Workplace violence. Essentia's letter describes a plan that includes investigation requirements, anti-retaliation protection, and paid committee time. We're glad to hear them say it publicly — now make it enforceable. Everything in a company plan can be revised by the company. We asked for three things in the contract: the right to refuse a genuinely unsafe assignment, firm deadlines to investigate incidents, and a paid seat where safety decisions are made. Essentia has agreed committee time should be paid, and we credit that as real movement. Health care workers are injured by violence on the job four to five times more often than workers in almost any other industry. Protections we can enforce are the difference.

One thing their letter doesn't mention at all: Appendix G. The letter of understanding limiting assigned overtime and extra shifts to 32 hours per contract year, with a meet-and-confer trigger at 28 hours, sunsets with the expired contract by its own terms. Unless it's renewed, those limits and the tracking report simply disappear. We have proposed renewing it.

Where we are going tomorrow.

We enter mediation on August 11 prepared to listen, to problem-solve, and to reach an agreement. We have moved substantially: down from 7% to 4.5%, differentials narrowed to the first year, dozens of our own proposals withdrawn to narrow the differences.

We will keep bargaining in good faith, and we take Essentia at their word that they intend to do the same.

What we will not do is accept protections we cannot enforce.

We'll update you as soon as we can after mediation.

In solidarity,

USW Local 9460-08 Technical Unit Bargaining Committee